How a Wrong Turn Became Home: The Middleburgh Coffee Co. Story
They weren’t looking for Middleburgh.
Patrick Mattia sat in the backseat, not driving, which was killing the animated New Yorker, as his friends barreled through the Catskills in 2016, headed to what they thought was Middletown for barbecue. “Guys, you’re going the wrong way,” he protested from the backseat.
After wings at High on the Hog, they cruised through Middleburgh’s Main Street on their way home. The whole car fell silent, captivated by the small-town charm.
That wrong turn changed everything, especially for Dasha, Patrick’s quiet, contemplative partner who would one day transform a long dormant blue building into Middleburgh’s living, breathing heart.
Dasha’s journey began 5,000 miles away in central Ukraine, in a city of nearly two million. She spent her twenties modeling across Asia, Dubai, and Europe before landing in Manhattan in 2012, where she worked her way up in the city’s elite restaurant scene. At Tower Group, the powerhouse behind New York’s most famous venues, she absorbed a philosophy that would define her future: treat every customer like a guest in your home, not a transaction.
When she met Patrick while working at a high-end Manhattan lounge, she denied him her number for a full year. Eventually, they reconnected at a beach out east, married and welcomed their son, Luca. By 2016, with Luca in tow, they were drowning in Manhattan’s chaos.
“In the city, you don’t feel fully safe with a child,” she remembers. “You want to hold his hand the whole time. Here, Luca would just take off. He wouldn’t even look back.”
That wrong turn to Middleburgh felt like destiny. Soon after, they bought a house in Schoharie. Weeks later, they made an offer on a blue building in Middleburgh that had once been a woodshop, a dead space waiting for life.
The plan was simple: open a coffee shop and run Airbnbs upstairs. Patrick would build it. Dasha would give it soul.
That was 2020, right before COVID hit. Patrick, a Manhattan construction manager who helped build the Oslo Coffee shop in West Village, gutted the space. Bare walls. Exposed brick. Empty promise. But Dasha saw something no one else could. “This has life because of her,” Patrick says, his voice going quiet. “I didn’t do anything for the everyday—the greetings, keeping the lights on, reading people. That was all her.”
Dasha’s vision was deceptively simple: “I wanted to create the kind of place where you meet people in line, where regulars become family, where strangers become neighbors.”
She sourced Oslo Coffee, Manhattan’s finest roaster, which doesn’t franchise to just anyone. The beans come direct from partner farms, no middlemen, no compromises. She trained with their West Village baristas before opening, learning to read customers before they reached the counter, to anticipate needs before they were spoken.
Opening day, March 18, 2023, was controlled chaos. The line stretched down Main Street. Friends and former customers drove up from Brooklyn. But the real magic wasn’t the Brooklyn crowd showing up once. It was what happened after they left.
“In just a few months, I knew more people here than I had in the three years of owning a home in Schoharie County,” Dasha shares.
She doesn’t just remember drink orders. She remembers children’s names, heartbreaks, celebrations. Some customers now text their orders before leaving their driveways. When she sees them walking up Main Street through the tall glass windows, their drinks are already being made. “People don’t just come here for coffee,” Dasha insists. “Customers tell us proposal plans, when they’re pregnant, when they lose their jobs, buy new houses, break down cars. They trust us. We listen.”
Three guest books now sit at the counter, filled with stories thanking Dasha for creating a space that feels like coming home.
At a recent dinner party, four different couples credited Middleburgh Coffee Co., and Dasha, as the reason they moved to Schoharie County. One elderly man came in asking about pastry prices. Dasha gave the gentleman a free pastry. The next day, he returned with developed photographs, prints he’d made himself.
Dasha also bakes. Fresh scones every morning, rotating flavors by season and whim. Sometimes it’s classic blueberry. Sometimes it’s Ukrainian honey cake using local honey from the Hop House, part of Wayward Lane Brewing. “Scones get a bad reputation,” she grins. “But mine are fresh,” she continues, “and baking lets me bring pieces of my culture into the shop.”
In 2024, Dasha heard about SUNY Cobleskill’s Business Boot Camp from SEEC’s Trish Bergan on the last day of registration. She pitched her business expansion plan to a panel of judges. She won second place. $8,500. The grant will create a permanent back space for workshops, pottery, herbalism, art classes, and women business owner meetups.
“I want this to be more than a coffee shop,” she says. “I want it to be a gathering space for connection.”
When people gossiped, saying they were city kids who wouldn’t make it, the people who mattered showed up. Joan Wissert of Middleburgh Mercantile introduced them to Julie Pacatte at SEEC, who offered a low-interest loan when banks wouldn’t listen. Neighbors helped haul equipment. Mrs. K’s hosted Dasha’s U.S. citizenship celebration in 2022.
The blue woodshop is long gone. The brick has returned. Inside, light pours through tall windows, catching steam rising from fresh cups and faces mid-connection. What started as a wrong turn became a choice — to stay, to build, to show up every single day.
In Schoharie County, Dasha didn’t just open a coffee shop. She put down roots.
RESOURCE BIN
Human
Dasha Mattia — Co-Owner, Middleburgh Coffee Co.
Patrick Mattia — Co-Owner, Middleburgh Coffee Co. (Family owns River Bend Farm in Jefferson)
Physical
Middleburgh Coffee Co.
104 Main Street, Middleburgh, NY 12122
(518) 868-2448
Financial
Village of Middleburgh — low-interest business loan support
SUNY Cobleskill Business Boot Camp — 2nd place grant ($8,500) support
SEEC — business advisory, connection to resources and loan support
Industry/Services
Specialty Coffee (Oslo Coffee - Manhattan's finest roaster - direct-trade beans, small-batch roasting)
Fresh-Baked Scones & Pastries (made in-house daily)
Airbnb Rentals (upstairs units)
Community Workshop Space (pottery, herbalism, art classes)
Event Hosting & Community Gatherings
Digital
Website: Coming soon by Second House
Instagram: @middleburghcoffeeco
Facebook: @MiddleburghCoffeeCompany
Email: info@middleburghcoffeeco.com